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--------------( the above is an advertisement )-------------- 1) BS? You decide:"BS" was the title of one angry-sounding reader post in reaction to my comments about web bugs. (For readers unfamiliar with American slang, "BS" is an abbreviation for, um, male bovine excrement....) The reader who dubbed my comments as BS went on to say:
Another reader had similar sentiments:
That sounds reasonable, and it would be a valid argument if the web were like TV, where a receiver captures a general, one-to-many, untargeted broadcast. But that's not how the web works. Each transaction between a browser and a server is a one-to-one connection. When you click to view a web page, graphic or to get a download, the server you're contacting has to be able to respond to *your specific PC* out of all the millions of PCs online so it can send you--- and just you--- the page, the graphic, the download, etc. that you wanted to see. Meanwhile, other people are seeing other things, each with their own one-to-one connection to various servers. So, all HTML transactions-- a click on a link, for example--- of necessity transmit your "return address" to the server you're contacting. It's not a breach of privacy; it's how the web works. Without that identifying information (eg, minimally, your IP address) your clicks would go out, but nothing would come back because there'd be no "return address" for the server to respond to. The web would stop dead! "Anonymizers," proxies and related tools can help disguise your address, but the link between you and the server still must exist at some level, even if it's redirected through an intermediate system--- whose own logs would then contain your real address. And an HTTP transaction can automatically include far more than just your "return address." For example, because many web sites have different options (separate HTML code for Netscape and IE browsers, for example), a standard HTTP transaction also can include information about your browser type. A standard HTTP transaction also can automatically generate date and time information (including time zone); information on what OS you're running; what page you last visited (so the site can send you back to it when you leave), and lots, lots more. So when someone says "I am not... inviting the host to... collect any information about me, my browser, my IP address" it's dead wrong. The host *must* obtain at least a minimal level of information about you, or it can't send you what you want. Simple as that. And odds are, for perfectly valid reasons, your HTTP transaction also includes lots more information beyond the minimum. As for the involuntary nature of these transactions, the only way to make them voluntary would be to build browsers and email clients that would stop *at every HTTP request* and ask if you want the request to go forward. Most web pages contain many elements: 10-20 is pretty typical, and some complex pages can go as high as 100 or so. Imagine having to stop and answer 10, 20 or 100 yes/no questions on EVERY page you visit.... It's not practical. And because almost all these HTTP transactions are utterly benign, it's also not necessary. It seems to me that if someone truly believes that it's all "an invasion of my privacy regardless of what data they collect and for what purpose" then the only real option is to abandon the Web, and go back to a passive-receive medium, like broadcast (not cable) television. If you use the Web, then you're going to transmit at least some information; there's no way around it. So the issue becomes "what information are they getting, and what will they do with it?" The good news is you *can* largely control what sensitive information you transmit, and you *can* largely know what the recipients will do with it. The answers are in the article at http://www.informationweek.com/843/langa.htm and in the discussion (which contains a ton of additional; information) at: http://www.informationweek.com/forum/Fred Langa . Click to
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--------------( the above is an advertisement )-------------- 2) Ad-Aware: New Version and SiteWe've discussed LavaSoft's
"Ad-Aware," a free an excellent anti-spyware tool, many times before. (See A new version is out: "Ad-Aware 5.5 final." And LavaSoft also has a new site: http://www.lavasoftusa.com/ . (Although the LavaSoft.De site is still there, they're shifting most traffic to the US server.) Highly recommended! Click to
email this item to a friend 3) More PhoenixNet News--- Almost All Bad!More and more readers have been experimenting with their PhoenixNet-equipped systems, and so far not one has has reported good results. PhoenixNet, you may recall, is a low-level "phone home" app built right into the PC system hardware in some PCs that ship with the popular Phoenix brand BIOS. (See http://search.atomz.com/search/?sp-q=phoenixnet&sp-a=0008002a-sp00000000 ) That's bad enough, but readers are reporting that the PhoenixNet-equipped BIOS also slows their systems down, even if the "phone home" actions are turned off! Most of the notes I'm getting are along these lines, from reader John Laidler:
Reader Rick Parker had his own share of problems, but did encounter one glimmer of hope for people stuck with these BIOSes:
With the growing amount of bad press and user feedback, maybe PhoenixNet will sink back into its ashes. 8-) Click to
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--------------( the above is an advertisement )-------------- 4) Bad Sectors = Hard Drive Death Rattle?Reader JMAX asked one of those "can of worm" questions:
The answer is a resounding: Maybe. 8-) "Hard" errors are usually caused by physical damage to the disk surface and can be caused by sudden shock (like dropping or knocking over your laptop or system), or more rarely by power problems, problems with spinning down ("parking" failures) and the like. Hard errors are bad, and often render the affected portion of the disk surface permanently unusable. They may also damage the drive's read/write heads. "Soft" errors can be caused by a variety of problems, but do not involve physical damage to any part of the drive. Some soft errors are repairable with a Scandisk or (from DOS) Chkdsk. Others *may* be cured with a reformat. But some repairable soft errors are beyond the reach of the normal operating system and may require a "low level" (aka "factory") format, or similar low-level intervention to work OK again. If the appearance of bad clusters is a one shot deal, it may not be worth worrying about, especially if the drive isn't very old or if the cause of the problem is obvious, not severe, and not likely to be repeated (say, you dropped your laptop, and caused a few repairable cluster errors). But if the drive is young, if the cause is mysterious, the damage severe, and especially if you get additional bad clusters anytime soon, it might be an indication of something very bad going on, and suggests the need for timely replacement of the drive. One possible alternative: SpinRite. Although most people nowadays associate Steve Gibson with online security issues, his SpinRite low-level disk-health tool has been around forever. It's up to version 5 now, and it can test, analyze and repair just about any software-repairable problem a drive can have. If SpinRite can't fix it--- it probably can't be fixed. 8-) Plus, if used regularly, SpinRite can help prevent disk problems, and even predict some kinds of problems before they cause trouble. ( http://grc.com/sroverview.htm ) The problem with Spinrite is that it costs $90, which is a substantial fraction of the cost of a new drive. Repairing/replacing a drive is a judgment call, involving factors such as how comfortable you are working inside your PC case, the importance/value of the data on the drive, etc. In some cases, a repair makes sense; in others, a new drive is the better choice. Click to
email this item to a friend 5) Windows 2000 Security HoleMicrosoft announced a patch for a security problem with Win2K that involves "Privilege Elevation." Through the security hole:
Yes, that would be bad. 8-) More info and a patch: Click to
email this item to a friend 6) New Month: Fresh Chances!It's a new month, and right now your chances are the best they'll ever be! To have a shot at winning a no-strings $30 Gift Certificate for any item at Amazon.Com--- books, software, hardware, kitchenware, toys, and more--- just use the following link to recommend the LangaList to a friend. Your friend just may find a new source of useful information; I just may gain a new subscriber; and you just may win a mini-shopping spree! (Full details also available via this link): http://www.langa.com/recommend.htm#2 The more times you make a recommendation, the greater your chances are of winning! Or, if you'd like to try to win $10,000(really!), try this link (full details also available here): http://www.recommend-it.com/l.z.e?s=143182 Either way, thank you, and good luck! Click to
email this item to a friend 7) Dodging The "Smart Tag" BulletIn the last issue, I mentioned Microsoft's plan to include "Smart Tags" in XP: These tags are a form of automatic hyperlinking created by a browser add-in: The add-in scans whatever web page you're on, looking for key words in its database. If it finds them, it automatically turns the keywords into clickable links. The problem is that the plug-in maker gets to decide what the keywords are, and where they link to. Initially, the databases would be compiled by Microsoft and would point to Microsoft-selected sites. For example, if you mention "money" on your web page, Microsoft might turn that word into a link to the Microsoft Money site. If you mention "browser," Microsoft could turn that word into a download link for Internet Explorer. And because this is all done inside the browser, and not actually on the site, it can be done without the site owner's permission or even knowledge. Many web owners rightly freaked out at the thought of Microsoft, in effect, inserting its own links into their content; a way of functionally taking over and controlling content by inserting Microsoft-favorable links everywhere on other people's sites. There also are unanswered legal issues: By materially altering the *display* of someone else's content, and in doing so perhaps changing the intent of the author (who may wish NOT to point to Microsoft sites, for example) would Microsoft be violating copyright? Due to the initial firestorm of protest, and coincidentally on the day the last LangaList issue came out, Microsoft announced it was dropping Smart Tags, at least for now. So, this isn't something you have to worry about today. But as it may come back in the future, it'll be worth watching for. Click to
email this item to a friend 8) They Just Keep Coming And Coming and Coming...Well over a thousand of your fellow
readers have "Loaded the code." Please click over to
http://www.langa.com/code.htm , and
maybe you can join them! (If you've already "Loaded The Code" and are wondering
if your site will appear here or on the Langa.Com web site, please see
http://www.langa.com/link.txt ) Manually Browse All
Posted-to-Date Sites Starting At Al Lowe's Humor Site
(creator of "Leisure Suit Larry" series) Find MP3s My Cambridge (UK) Leisure Time Attractions,
Inc. (FLA) Chris Dixon Studios.com "Tech and More Page" The Shadow Zone Search Portal PC Improvement News Links, Downloads, More Click to
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--------------( the above is an advertisement )-------------- 9) Free CAB-file ToolAs part of our discussions about recovering from the SULFNBK.EXE hoax (see http://www.langa.com/newsletters/2001/2001-06-04.htm#1 ), we mentioned several tools that let you extract individual files and components from the Windows setup CAB files. Reader Vern wrote in to suggest a tool for easily searching within several kinds of compressed storage files, including CABs, ZIPs and JARs:
Thanks, Vern! Click to
email this item to a friend 10) Just For GrinsMany readers have been experimenting with the weird and wonderful "Lost In Translation" site mentioned in the previous issue. ( http://www.tashian.com/multibabel/ ) Thanks to all who wrote in (especially Frank Ramage, Jake, Dave, and David Griffiths). A sampling:
(After full processing, it comes back as "Elvis Presley is really the king!" It's completely unchanged!)
Reader Grant Smiley tried a similar experiment on a different site, http://www.worldlingo.com . He started with "To err is human, to really foul things up requires a computer."
All I can say is "Goodness gracious, great balls of fire!" Or, as Lost In Translation would have it: "Pleasant quality, great spheres of the fire!" Click to
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